Brodsky-Hamblin-Southeast Collaboration to be Celebrated

A program celebrating the 25-year collaboration of Faulkner collector Louis Daniel Brodsky, scholar Robert Hamblin, and Southeast Missouri State University is set for Monday, November 1.

The program, entitled “Brodsky, Hamblin, Southeast, and Faulkner: The 25th Year,” will be held at 7 p.m. in the University Center Ballroom. Admission is free.

The featured speaker for the event will be Professor James B. Carothers, a noted Faulkner scholar from the University of Kansas. Carothers, the author of the influential William Faulkner’s Short Stories and one of the founding editors of the Faulkner Journal, is a regular presenter at the annual Faulkner and Yoknapatawpha Conference in Oxford, Mississippi.

One of the most popular teachers on his campus, Carothers is a past recipient of the Kemper Fellowship for Teaching Excellence, one of the most prestigious awards granted by the University of Kansas.

Following the program Brodsky and Hamblin will host visitors to the Center for Faulkner Studies in Kent Library.

Brodsky and Hamblin met in 1978, and the following year the first major public exhibit of the Brodsky Collection of Faulkner materials was mounted in the University Museum.

Since that initial exhibit, Brodsky and Hamblin have collaborated on eight books, as well as numerous exhibit catalogs, articles, and lectures based on the Brodsky Collection.

One of the books coedited by Brodsky and Hamblin, Faulkner’s screenplay entitled “The De Gaulle Story,” was subsequently translated into French and became the basis of a French television movie.

In 1988 ownership of the Brodsky Collection was transferred to Southeast Missouri State University, and the university created the Center for Faulkner Studies to oversee research, educational, and public service activities related to the Brodsky Collection. Brodsky continues to serve as curator of the collection, while Hamblin directs the Faulkner Center.